Working on the Ancient Romans Project

We’re always working with researchers around the world to support their programmes.

We recently provided sample analysis to Dr. Mario Carić, Postdoctoral researcher, based in Zagreb, the Institute for Anthropological Research (https://www.linkedin.com/company/inantro/), the Centre for Applied Bioanthropology and the Laboratory for Evolutionary Anthropology and Bioarchaeology. The analyses support his team’s current work on the Ancient Romans Project, led by Dr Mario Novak and funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, which is aimed at examining the lifestyle, health, diet, genetic makeup, and migration of the Roman-age inhabitants on the territory of modern day Croatia.

Additionally Mario’s team is always working on bone collagen samples from various other periods, and from archaeological sites throughout Europe, in collaboration with their European and American Colleagues (Harvard University, Santa Barbara University, etc.), for which Isolab Scientific also provides with the necessary mass spectroscopy.

Mario explained more about the current research: “The objective is to answer the following question: How did the structural political, social and economic changes taking place on the territory of present-day Croatia as a result of Roman dominance affect health, diet, and population structure of the region’s inhabitants?”

In essence, he and his team are trying to create as complete a picture as possible of the Roman-period inhabitants in what is now modern day Croatia. This includes their ways of life, genetic profiles, diet, and potential migration patterns. As an example, we are looking at the effects of lead use in everyday life. This is well documented in Roman-era populations, and could have affected the general health; this theory is strongly supported in the preliminary results.

“However,” Mario explains, “Diet reconstruction via stable isotope analyses of carbon and nitrogen (among others) conducted by Isolab Scientific has always been a cornerstone of our research, and sort of a baseline of our osteographic profiling. In addition, Isolab Scientific has also proven invaluable during our test run on collagen hair analyses of animals; a field of study which we soon plan on expanding on human hair samples from Medieval period as well.”

The research is in the second of four years, but as Mario explains, there are always more grants to write and more projects to undertake!

How does Isolab Scientific process the samples sent in from Mario’s lab?

Molly Goodwin, Lab Manager at Isolab Scientific, explains: “Our collagen samples go through a Sercon EA‑IRMS system for dual carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Each sample is sealed in a tiny tin capsule and dropped into the elemental analyser, where it’s flash‑combusted at high temperature. The resulting gases are cleaned, separated, and guided into the Sercon 20‑20 IRMS, which measures the different isotopes of nitrogen and carbon. The outcome is precise δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C data that supports our clients’ research.”

For further information on our isotope analyses which can support a wide range of research, please email us at sales@isolab-scientific.com.